THE IMPACT OF SUPPLY CHAIN INTEGRATION ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE (A CASE STUDY OF A LEADING PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY OF PAKISTAN)

Abstract

In the past century and after the end of world war, a number of forces compel manufacturing organizations to drastically change their manufacturing philosophies which they used to the manufacturing and the technologies practices and processes. These forces are related to organizational survival factors which are market demands, cost reductions, cycle time reductions, inventory management, operating equipment effectiveness, and material requirement. So, manufacturing organizations have increased their focus on specific competitive advantage, management of cost, relations with customer, relations with supplier, and the treatment and development of people. Supply chain Management as such is now recognized by many organizations as a mean by which they can achieve competitive advantage and improve their business results. Effective supply chain management therefore has become a strategic factor in a firm’s success. To achieve all these competitive advantage, cost effectiveness and improved efficiency has been achieved through the integration of intra and inter supply chain processes. This research is dealing with the order fulfillment process within supply chain through all processes planning, production, inventory control, finance, logistics and specially the integration of all these processes both vertically and horizontally within the chain. Higher levels of supply chain integration help organization to improve their practices of supply chain and to improve overall business performance.